A while back, the NY Times had an article talking about efforts by some within the pro-life movement to turn abortion into a racial issue in the hopes of bringing the black community into the movement. The disproportionate concentration of abortion clinics in black neighborhoods (and the eugenicist views of Planned Parenthood's founder), they argue, show that there is a conspiracy in the abortion-rights community to kill black children. I think it's interesting to see conservatives making pretty much the same types of arguments as Furious Styles in Boyz 'n the Hood. But let's set that aside for the moment. The more interesting question is what the proponents of this line of argument hope to get out of it. I assume they think that they'll be able to convince more African Americans to vote for Republican candidates. But black people already have more conservative attitudes than whites when it comes to abortion. That has not translated into African Americans voting for Republicans in appreciable numbers. Why is that? Perhaps stuff like this and this has something to do with it.

Eduardo M. Peñalver is the Allan R. Tessler Dean of the Cornell Law School. The views expressed in the piece are his own, and should not be attributed to Cornell University or Cornell Law School.

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